This is Why Sugar Makes You Fat

You've probably already heard by now that sugar makes you fat. There have been numerous books written about it as well as documentary movies devoted entirely to this subject. But why does sugar make you fat?

Over the past 50 years the food industry have been trying to convince us that eating fat makes us fat. But despite a large range of low-fat products the society overall continues to grow in size - the percentages of the population that are overweight or obese, and it's creating massive health issues.

Part of the problem is that when you remove or reduce the fat in a product you take out the flavour, so the food manufacturers had to add in flavour, so they added sugar.

We know now that certain forms of naturally occurring dietary fat - such as those you might find in coconut oil, avocados, olive oil, nuts, and fatty fish - are actually very good for you.

So, back to Sugar!

What happens when you drink a can of soft drink, or even pre-packaged fruit juice for that matter? You are flooding your system with sugar and your body responds by creating insulin. Your body can't cope with that amount of sugar. It can't burn that energy immediately so some of that energy must be stored for future use. How does the body store energy? It stores it as fat. The body is just trying to be economical and not waste anything but you end up with unsightly storage pods in your body.

Also, be aware that there is sugar in many, many processed products, especially sauces.

If you want to try and cut back on your sugar it can be a daunting task, especially when sugar is in so many products. So the best way to do it is to cut it out bit by bit.

Start with soft drinks, cordials and bottled fruit juice. These contain a lot of sugar. Stick with plain filtered water with a slice of lime or lemon. If you want a cup of coffee or tea, you may well be used to adding some sugar. Try a natural alternative like stevia or xylitol. Avoid artificial sweeteners as these actually will hinder weight loss in a whole different way. But I could devote another entire article to that subject alone.

It goes without saying that lollies, ice cream, biscuits and similiar products are definitely off the table.

Don't even get me started on breakfast cereals. There's not much worth eating there, but you should be able to find a good quality muesli with less than 10% sugar content.

Once you've managed to wean yourself off these very sugary food and drink items, start looking at other products and how much sugar is in these, by checking the ingredients information on the label. You don't have to give them up completely but there are quite often acceptable alternatives that have much lower sugar contents.

Of course there are other food types that negatively impact the blood sugar levels but I'll cover those in future articles.